Air, Land and Sea (ALS) has been a very exciting part of the business over the last 18 months. With a brand new ALS concept store newly opened in Bluewater, we are going at full speed to make sure the collection is accessible for as many of our customers as possible. The new store has the full ALS collection as well as some specially chosen items from our other top brands. This new store is a reflection of the ALS mission, which is fully committed to lifestyle. With a focus on comfort and style, the collection has everything you need for some chill out time after a day of outdoor activities. Catering for both male and female customers, the brand offers pretty and stylish options for women, along with a 'cool comfort' style in the men's range - check out the ALS ranges on the website http://www.blacks.co.uk/browse/keywords/ALS.html
We've already launched over 15 of our new concept stores, Blacks in High Street Kensington, Holborn, Guildford and Glasgow as well as Millets in Bristol, Chichester and Newcastle...to name just a few. And following on from their resounding success, we’re planning to create many more.
So what's different about them? There's more focus on fashion lines, for starters, from Mambo surfwear to The North Face jackets. In our Blacks and Freespirit stores, fashion is very much the focus now. We're selling clothes for people to wear about town, as much as in the great outdoors.
Our Millets stores are concentrating on the technical side of the business – but we're introducing a more fashionable face here too. We've also just launched our kidswear ranges which include vibrant clothing as well as matching equipment lines. We're still catering for the outdoor enthusiast, but they're just as likely to be heading off to Glastonbury as going trekking in the Lakes. To help improve sales in this market further, we’ve also launched a range of easy to understand instructions for our technical equipment.